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Summary
The speaker leads a class discussion on Chapter Two of the Westminster Confession of Faith, focusing on the nature and attributes of God. The session covers the first two paragraphs, exploring God’s incommunicable attributes (such as aseity, infinity, immutability, and eternality), which are unique to Him, and His communicable attributes (like love, mercy, justice, and holiness), which humans are called to reflect. The discussion emphasizes that God is self-sufficient and does not need creation to express His glory or love. It also highlights that encountering God’s true nature—both His awe-inspiring holiness and His profound goodness—should lead to awe, repentance, and worship, not merely for what He has done, but for who He is.
Knowledge Points
1. Westminster Confession of Faith – Chapter 2 Analysis
- Introduction and Reading Plan
- The class is studying the Westminster Confession of Faith, temporarily skipping ahead to Chapter Two, “Of God and of the Holy Trinity.”
- The instructor plans to cover this chapter in one or two weeks.
- The session reads and discusses the first two paragraphs; the third paragraph, on the Trinity, is reserved for a later class.
- Distinction Between Sin, Iniquity, and Transgression
- These terms are largely synonymous but carry different nuances.
- Sin: Based on a term meaning “to miss the mark,” like an arrow missing a bullseye; the extent of the miss is irrelevant—missing is missing.
- Transgression: An active violation of a known law; not merely missing, but crossing a stated boundary.
- The Shorter Catechism defines sin as “any lack of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God,” covering both sins of omission (failing to do what is required) and commission (doing what is forbidden).
2. The Attributes of God
- Incommunicable Attributes of God
- Attributes unique to God and not shared with humanity; often described via what God is not from a human standpoint.
- Aseity: God is self-sufficient and complete in Himself; He needs nothing from creation.
- Infinite: God is without limit, beyond measure, and outside all constraints; distinct from eternal (which relates to time).
- Immutable: God does not change. His promises, compassion, mercy, justice, and wrath remain constant.
- Eternal: God has neither beginning nor end.
- Recognizing these attributes directs humans to their dependence on God and to worship Him for who He is.
- Communicable Attributes of God
- Attributes God possesses perfectly that humans are called to reflect.
- Examples include the fruit of the Spirit (joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness), forgiveness, compassion, mercy, and justice.
- Holiness: Considered communicable because Scripture commands, “Be holy, for I am holy.” While humans cannot attain God’s perfect holiness, they are called to pursue it through the Holy Spirit’s presence.
- The Importance of God’s Immutability
- God’s unchanging nature is both encouraging and sobering.
- Encouragement: God’s promises, compassion, and grace are steadfast, comforting believers even when they sin.
- Sobriety: God’s justice, wrath, and hatred of sin are also unchanging, making it “a frightening thing for a sinner to be handed over to a holy God.”
3. God’s Relationship with Creation
- God’s Self-Sufficiency (Aseity)
- God is “all-sufficient” in and unto Himself; He did not create humanity out of need for love or completion.
- Divine love existed eternally within the Trinity; God lacked nothing.
- God-centeredness is proper to God because He is God; it is improper for humans.
- Giving Glory to God
- When humans “give glory to God,” they do not add to His glory.
- They ascribe or acknowledge the glory He already has, which transforms the human heart and deepens fellowship with Him through obedience.
- The Nature of Encountering God
- Scriptural encounters with God or Jesus leave people “undone” and filled with awe.
- Examples: Peter’s reaction to the miraculous catch (“Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man”) and Moses’s request to see God’s glory, to which God reveals His “goodness.”
- Casual attitudes toward God are misplaced; a true encounter evokes profound awe at His holiness and goodness.
- C.S. Lewis’s Aslan illustrates this: “He’s not safe, but He’s good,” and the safest response to His call is to come—knees trembling if necessary.